The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1887-02-16
WANT AND WASTE.
BY REV. III. W. THOMAS.

ply as the Possessory Principle il a part
of the constitution of man. It's presence
may be observed in the early years of child
hood; children have the feeling of owner
ship. or the right OF possession in tho little
lhings that they call their own. They come
to feel that they own their toys and their
clothes; they speak of these things as theirs,
and il taken from them they feel that
right has been violated.
This principle lies at the foundation of
industry; 1t rests mainly in the sense OF
need that is common to all, and partly in
that benehcent ordering of things by which
each one experiences pleasure in the labor
that goes TO supply the imperative needs of
his being. And it is pleasant to note the
harmony between the constitution of things
that lmplants this posse ssory principle and
the order of nature that makes possible its
qualification. 1t is principle in political
economy that each able bodied man and
woman, as husband and wife, must be able
10 provide for themselves and at least two
children, and to have something beyond
the daily needs of life to lay up against the
time OF sickness and old age. And it is ev-
ident that, if this were not the case, the
population of the world could not be main
tanned at its present numbers; and for the
simple reason that the means of subsist-
ence would be insufficient for its support.
But the provisions of nature are such
that more than this can be done; that par
ents can provide for five or six, or more
children; and these again for increasing
families; and hence the population of the
earth can increase. And more than this is
possible; beyond the actual needs of exist
ence, it is possible often to have many lux
uries, and periods of rest and relief from
labor. And still more than this is possible, as
may be seen in the steady accumulations of
! ~ p1v, in ha tati -
value that we call money, and bonds and
securities, but in the enduring forms of Ia
Dor put into farms, and buildings, and pub
lie improvements, such as highways, and
bridges, and harbors-forms of wealth that
pass down from one generation to another.
But now. over against this law of posi-
bic accumulation, must be noted the oppo-
site facts of wear and waste. Many things
! grow old and die, or wear out in their use.
The animals of domesticty-horses and
cattle-and the fruit bearing trees die, and
the implements of agriculture, and articles
of furniture, and even the houses that shell
ter mankind wear out have to be repaired,
and at last replaced by the new. Moth
/ and rust consume" These processes, how
ever, are gradual, so that there is generally
time allowed to make good this necessary
wear and waste of things.
But there are other forms of waste
against which the individual and the So
cial order need greater protection and
security than have as yet been provided.
! Before some of these, as the wasting
tornado man seems utterly powerless, and
| it is often difficult to guard against the de-
struction of property by the sudden rise
/ and overlooking of streams, or from unfore-
seen accidents. But it is we'll worth the
thought of our world to look more to the
saving of what has been by hard work and
by long time secured. The amount of
property destroyed by fire every year
= IN our country is simply frightful.
And this is total waste; nothing
/ is left but the useless debris that it costs
money and labor to remove. 1t ought to
be possible in this age of science to so
build houses and churches and school
houses and theaters and hotels that they
would not burn down. There should be
such stringent laws and regulations that no
one would be permitted TO build insecurity,
and such laws should be rigidly enforced.
There is another form of waste to which
our world has been strangely and almost
criminally Indifferent. 1t is the waste Of
human life. If the ratio of deaths OF the
young of the animals inside of domesticity
were half as great as is that of children,
the whole country would be aroused 1t
is estimated that one-half the children
born in our world die before they reach the
age of ten years. That is, the labor, the
care, the suffering, of bringing thousand
million human beings into existence, and
caring for them, is lost every few years.
There is a money, a property, value in
children; stop the increase of the race, and
all the property on earth would not be
worth one dollar in three score years from
this hour.
This is the cold, commercial side of the
! cf,h hnt hot atin u
or can there be in this world, for all the
sorrow, for all the tears that are shed
over these little graves? And yet society
goes on, and permits one-half of each ris-
ing generation to march into the jaws of
death; permits the defective and easily
remedied drainage, and its pernicious
sewer gas to produce feyers and other
malignant forms of disease; and outside of
the home children are forced to suffer from
poorly heated and ventilated school-rooms.
And others die, not from want of atfec-
ton on the part of their parents, but for
want of proper knowledge and care in
food and clothing, and avoiding exposure.
Just now we hear much said about the
poor of our country, and especially In the
great cities, suffering for the necessities of
life-for nourishing food, and warm cloth
ing, and shelter to protect them against the
cold. And yet this great land consumes
annually almost as much in the useless, not
to say hurful Injuries, of liquor and to-
bacco alone, as is spent for bread and meat
and clothing and education. And added to
this is the great waste of war, from which
our world suffers. Could society in some
way stop these fearful leakages, these ire
mendous wastes of its substance, and turn
them into the channels of the worlds &C
tual needs and higher culture, peace and
plenty and learning, and even the luxuries
! of life might be within the easy reach of
every man, woman, and child.
Against the fearful waste of intemper-
ance, the moral conviction and the deter
mined will power of the individual must be
brought TO bear. To arrest the sorrowful
devastations of disease, the science of the
world must be invoked. To put an end TO
! the awful destruction of war we must have
a wiser and better political economy, and
n wider and tenderer realization of the
brotherhood of man-of Gods great law of
loye.-ChicGOo Ledger.
She Wanted Change.